Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, “Strength through Shopping”, Berlin, 2009

Click here to view the embedded video.

Monogrammed toilet paper rollers that sing
Ever wonder who would buy these things?
The ones with plastic Santas in their yards
And custom license plates no one understands

Strength thru shopping
What a thrill
Who cares, they were on sale
Save more buying nothing at all
But it’s the art of the deal

Fake glasses so people think I’m smart
Fitness toys by mail, I think I used ‘em once
Found a quicker way
To dazzle the boys and girls
Silicone implants for he-man lumpy arms

Strength thru shopping
Make my day
Obey the call of the consumer
Give me convenience
Or give me death
Before I choke on myself

My car stereo’s so loud and big
There’s hardly anywhere for me to sit
Or make room for an inflatable doll or three
So I can take the carpool lane
And pass toll-free

Took a paid vacation on a train
My camcorder never left my face
Only put it down to recharge
At home I’ll play it back
And see just where we’ve gone

Strength through shopping everywhere
Am I possessed by my possessions?
Online I never leave my chair
No one screws me
Kuz I’m protected
I’m protected
I screw myself instead

What if Christmas didn’t come this year?
And no one paid for Christmas cheer?
Who would cry the biggest tear,
The child or the store?

Why do brides wear virgin white?
Most do not deserve that right.
But to choose a color of their delight
Would surely bring on the frowns.

To defy the laws of tradition
Is a crusade only of the brave.

Suppose the taxman, he comes to town,
And you don’t lay your money down.
Yet Mr. Jones he killed Mr. Brown the other day.
Well I wonder… who’s gonna go to hell?

To defy the laws of tradition
Is a crusade only of the brave.

To defy the laws of tradition
Is a crusade only of the brave.

To defy the laws of tradition
Is a crusade only of the brave.

From the New York Daily News:

A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.

Via Cryptogon, where Kevin says, “Maybe I need a Zombie Uprising category.”

The author (YouTube page) writes at his blog:

You are being used. You are being exploited. You are a slave, and you are kept only comfortable enough so that you will not notice. You are regularly misled, propagandized, and all out lied to.

You, as a human being, are nothing but a faceless resource to the moneyed power structure that controls modern banking and politics. You are a drone, a pack-horse, a conspicuous consumer.

When you no longer can labour, when there is nothing left to strip mine, like Boxer in Animal Farm you are left to simply die in the fields.

I think you deserve better. I think we all deserve better. And I’m here to make sure that we get it.

This analysis resonates with me. I don’t agree with everything in the video, but it has plenty of merit nonetheless.

Hat tip to Talley.